Regan Johnston successfully completes PhD on hate crime in the USA

Regan’s thesis examines three different stages of hate crime policy in the United States, from the adoption of hate crime laws, to the politics of their amendment, to why some people are more likely to attribute a violent assault to the presence of racial, gender, or gender identity

The dissertation examines how state legislatures in the United States decide which groups hate laws protect and how the laws change after passage. Contrary to expectations, she finds that between 1977 and 2020, governments in which Republican and Democrats shared power passed these laws more often Democratic-controlled or Republican-controlled governments. She argues that legislators rely on strategic ambiguity when adopting hate crime laws, which enables each party to frame the legislation differently with their constituents. In a second study, she shows that laws first passed under Democratic control were amended more often, and the two political parties differ in the groups to which the extend protections. In a survey experiment, she demonstrates that Southern adults who denied that Black Americans face structural barriers to equality were less likely to judge a crime against a Black victim as motivated by prejudice, suggesting that whether a given event is likely to viewed as motivated by hate is contingent on an observers’ prior beliefs about social bias. In these ways, the thesis provides a sophisticated and robust explanation of the politics of hate crime legislation and public perceptions.

Regan’s thesis committee included Drs. Michelle Dion (supervisor), Andrea Lawlor, and Tina Fetner (Sociology), and her external examiner was Dr. Don Haider-Markel (University of Kansas).

Congratulations, Dr. Johnston!